This invention relates to infant incubators and, more particularly, to a heated humidifier for humidifying the air delivered to the infant compartment within which the infant is positioned and which has a thermally actuated valve controlling the flow of humidified air from the humidifier.
It is advantageous to provide humidified air to the infant compartment of an incubator in caring for the infant and current incubators provide various methods for providing that humidification.
In such humidifiers, generally a flow of air is passed across the surface of water contained within a reservoir to pick up water vapor from the water to humidify the flow of air. That humidified air is thereafter caused to enter the infant compartment to reach the infant. In some humidifiers, no active heating means is employed to actually heat the water for vaporization. These humidifiers rely upon heat contained in the flow of air through the humidifier to vaporize the water.
In other humidifiers, however, an active heater is used to heat the water within the reservoir so that additional humidification is possible for providing the water vapor to the stream of air passing across the surface of the water. The present invention is specifically directed to the latter type of humidifier, that is, a humidifier having an active heater transferring heat to the water.
A difficulty in humidifiers for incubators, however, is in controlling the addition of water vapor to the stream of air that is intended for the infant. It is important that the humidifier be isolated from the flow of air to the infant at times when humidification is not desired and therefore, it is advantageous to provide some means to valve or control the flow of humidified air from the humidifier at times when no humidity is desired as well as to provide some control at other times.
In some humidifiers today, however, the active air stream may be diverted or physically cut off from passing across the surface of the water, however the water may otherwise remain in the circuit and inadvertent air flow may continue to allow passively humidified air to emerge from the humidifier and enter the stream of air to the incubator compartment. In such cases, the operator may not want any humidity to reach the infant but is unaware of the inadvertent addition of humidity or can do nothing to prevent the passive creation of water vapor that finds its way into the infant compartment.